Research Catalog

Title

Gouverneur Morris papers, 1768-1816

Author

Morris, Gouverneur, 1752-1816

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

1374

Summary

Letters written to Gouverneur Morris from many of his contemporaries including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, John Paul Jones, Nathaniel Greene, Philip Schuyler, Robert Morris, George Plater, William Short, William T. Franklin, and Thomas Pinckney. Letters from Gouverneur Morris to George Washington, John Jay, Lafayette, Philip Schuyler, Nathaniel Greene, and others. Personal correspondence from Madame Foucault, John Parish, and others. Manuscripts and documents relating to events in which Morris was a participant or interested party such as the Genet Affair and the "Lost Million" Affair; diplomatic correspondence with French ministers of foreign affairs, 1792-1794, and miscellaneous articles and reports by Morris, many on public finance and economics.

Subject

• Washington, George, 1732-1799
• Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
• Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
• Jones, John Paul, 1747-1792
• Greene, Nathanael, 1742-1786
• Schuyler, Philip John, 1733-1804
• Morris, Robert, 1734-1806
• Plater, George, 1735-1792
• Short, William, 1759-1849
• Franklin, William Temple, 1760-1823
• Pinckney, Thomas, 1750-1828
• Jay, John, 1745-1829
• Foucault, Elise Le Ray de Chaumont, Madame
• Parish, John, 1742-1829
• Genet, Edmond Charles, 1763-1834
• Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834
• Finance, Public
• Diplomatic and consular service, French
• France > Foreign relations > United States
• United States > Foreign relations > France
• United States > Politics and government > To 1775
• United States > Politics and government > 1775-1783
• United States > Politics and government > 1783-1865
• United States > Politics and government > 1789-1809
• United States > Economic conditions

Genre/Form

Autographs (manuscripts)

Access (note)

• This collection is located on-site.
• This collection has no restrictions.

Cite As (note)

• Identification of specific item including item number; Date (if known); Gouverneur Morris Papers; Box; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.

Original Location (note)

• Microfilm available. Reel 1: Items 1-303; Reel 2: Items 304-606; Reel 3: Items 607-839; Reel 4: Items 840-1,004; Reel 5: Items 1,005-1,371. The microfilm was digitized in 2009; contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Terms of Use (note)

• Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Source (note)

• Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--1954. Accession number--M-54. Gift of Kenneth Rendell, 1978. Purchase, 1989.

Biography (note)

• Gouverneur Morris (January 31, 1752 - November 6, 1816) was an American statesman and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. Morris graduated from King's College in 1768, delivering the commencement address "Wit and Beauty." The scion of a prominent New York family whose manor gave the Morrisania section of the present-day Bronx its name, Morris and his older brother Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, sided with the revolutionaries even as their mother and sisters remained loyal to the crown. After the Revolutionary War, Morris served in the Continental Congress and as assistant to the minister of finance, proposing the decimal system for the national currency and inventing the word cent in the process. As a Constitutional Convention delegate, he is acknowledged to have given final form to the U.S. Constitution, paring the original draft of 23 articles to seven and writing the document's preamble. He also inserted the famous phrase "We the people" at the beginning. As James Madison said, "The finish given to the style and arrangement of the Constitution fairly belongs to the pen of Mr. Morris." Morris later served as a diplomatic agent in England, as U.S. minister to France during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, and as a U.S. senator. In 1811, he chaired a three-man commission that transformed Manhattan Island by designing its 12-avenue, 155-street grid above Houston Street. He also chaired the Erie Canal Commission for three years, but did not live to see the canal's completion. From: http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/gouverneur_morris.html

Processing Action (note)

• Cataloged Christina Hilton Fenn 08/--/89.

OCLC

• 298686848
• ocn298686848
• SCSB-4797826

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries